Platform: Mac, Windows, Linux, Javascript

Terrible evil lurks beneath the dwarven hall. Lucky for our hero all he had to do was go warn them about this. Unlucky for him, dwarves are stubborn, judgmental creatures and refused to listen and somehow managed to release this unspeakable evil in the meantime. While luck may not be on his side it certainly is for us as we get to play this grand adventure and strategicdungeon crawl. The online demo of Clewcat's DungeonUp is packed with content enough to stand on its own, with thirty playable floors, and multiple boss battles, it will give a good hour or two of hack'n'slash, puzzles, and general dungeony stuff. Collect colorful keys to open the corresponding doors to advance forward to slay evil. But there are more doors than keys and different pathways to chose. You're going to need your wits about you to get through this game alive. With procedurally generated levels, starting over could actually be more fun.

DungeonUp is a lot more strategy than action based as you'll know the outcome of any fight before you even get into it. Each floor is a maze of doors with a limited number of keys, and the trick is to plan your route, decide what is needed to be gathered first, and what you should go back for later. Upgrades can be bought at special statues, and after you have gathered up enough soul stones, which are given to you by killing a boss, you can purchase new items to help you along your way. The soul stones stick with your character, so even if you have to restart if your plan fails, they stay with you until you spend them. It's a shame to say, though, that this very addicting game has some flaws. The key-to-door-ratio seems to be off, with some users feeling it's impossible on harder difficulties because of it, though on "casual" you gain a yellow key after a minute of using your last one. So get ready to wait, because you'll never have enough keys. The game is very fluid though, and a lot of other frustrations are done away with, such as skipping through battles, the ease of alternating between the mouse and the keyboard, and you don't have a max health so you never waste health potions. Despite the lack of needed keys, DungeonUp is a solid dungeon crawler that will make you want to go back for more. Try out the free demo at the very least if you dare risk the of chance of becoming an addict.

27 Comments

This is actually more like DROD: Tendry's Tale, which is based on an older game that I can't remember the name of. The Enchanted Cave was not balanced around being solvable your first life in the slightest despite the superficial resemblance (you got upgrades to your character on death) whereas here you really are intended to puzzle things out instead of bashing your face against the monsters until you outlevel them.

This is supposed to remind you of a game called Tower of Sorcerer, which is what this game is based from, but using Onyx's 16-bit sprite set.

But yes, this is a game where the emphasis is on actually figuring things out and using your brains instead of grinding: in fact, you get NOTHING other than money from killing monsters, and while upgrades at the statues start off cheap, as Rouge says, it exponentially grows for ANY upgrade cumulatively and becomes impractical to money-grind (because monsters do NOT respawn unless you use a one-use item). Combined with the fact that items also do NOT respawn, and you realize that it is detrimental to kill every monster in the higher floors.

The only thing you can grind is Soul Stones. Which you can spend to get late game artifacts much earlier, and makes early-game a complete breeze. However, they do not help in trying to beat the full-version final boss, which I'm still struggling to figure out. For 5 months. Not to mention the true final boss which requires you to figure out secrets for either.

While it is true that this game is supposed to not be about grinding, the difference between one and two lives is not a significant gameplay difference. TEC was not about grinding either, unless you were a poor player. Just like Candy Box.

I greatly preferred The Enchanted Cave to this game. They key mechanic is a good addition, but it was overused. There are way, way too many meaningless doors, and it's too easy to get permanently stuck. You also don't get a feeling of constant progression, which is key in quasi-roguelikes.

Has anyone actually played this game through? I'm unable to find a walkthrough (or even just hints/tips) online anywhere - I've reached the final boss but I'm still missing some key ingredients for being able to defeat him. Any help at all in how to acquire

level 17 from a start point of level 16 - you'll notice it's missing from the list you open up when you use the Wand of Flight

. While there, I asked

the genie all three possible questions you're allowed to ask and got (I think) all 3 results, but I was never given a shard of the Fire Sword. I think you're supposed to kill the genie but I never have anywhere near enough health to get out of that battle alive, and once you start fighting him you must fight him to the death.

For some reason I feel like the Wand of Freezing should be retrievable BEFORE you go to

level 50 to battle the dragon

since you can't get the Dragon Slayer glove until you've frozen the lava and you'd think that would be a helpful weapon to have... but I still have no idea how to do that. Gah!

@Maude Buttons - I've been playing in Casual Mode where you get a free yellow key in 60 seconds if you run out - honestly I can't imagine playing this game in a harder mode, it's frustrating enough without the free keys! :)

the other pieces for the fire sword on level -49, I found the broken pommel and the guard

but you will need to

dig your way to reach them ;)

If I remember correctly

they are in the upper left and right corner, you only need to dig once or twice, then secret paths will open. Unfortunately I don't remember where was the sweet spot, but I believe it was from the top right and left prison cells into those thick walls above.

Remember that elder that said something like, "To pass this test you must know the formation of 5 on a die"?

Hint 2:

What does the formation of the illusionists in the boss fight remind you of?

Solution:

To weaken him, you need to kill the four illusionists directly above, below, and to the left and right of him. Leave the diagonals, and BE CAREFUL not to scare them away and out of formation. The idea is to form the die symbol meaning 5 with the Lord and his minions.

Actually, you can get the dragon slayer before you get the wand of freezing. Here's how:

You use three scrolls of teleport- one from the upper left room (the one with the elder) who actually gives you a hit of how to do this. Then you can fight your way up to the top, and teleport down to the lower left room, then use a bomb to kill two of the fire elementals (if, like me, you haven't gotten to the point you can kill them. Then simply teleport back out.

You DO remember you can use the Wand of Flight to leave the floor at any time?

To get the Dragon Slayer (gauntlet), you only need

two scrolls of teleport; exit with wand of flight. How:

Teleport moves you to the symmetrical side of the board; this means you need to teleport from the upper left quadrant to the lower right, then from the upper right to the lower left. Sing you need an empty space where you will appear, you can stand either where the yellow key or the potion are.

Alternately,

you can also use a scroll of earthquake, since it removes the outer walls

While I'm dropping out hints after completing this game, here are a few more things to know

Flame Sword: You can get these pieces in any order but I'll recommend the order for convenience

First Piece

Floor -6
You can only get to this room using a scroll of height from floor -7. You can ALSO use a scroll of depth, but do not as you'll only get one unless you pay in soul stones and you need that one later.
There will be two Fire Elementals here. If you're not ready to fight them, you can use the Wand of Flight to come back later.
The elder has a blade fragment. But you might want to com here first because of all the other cool stuff.

Second and Third Pieces

Floor -49
You can get two pieces in here and you will need two magic mattocks.
Floor -6 shows you where the secret walls are, as it is "built the same" as floor -49. So, take a mattock to the top left wall of the upper left cell and follow the secret walls until you reach the piece.
In the upper right cell, take a mattock to the top center of the wall instead.

Alternatively, you can use a scroll of earthquake to get both at once. The remaining rock after earquake is done will be secret passages, just touch them to uncover.

Fourth Piece

Floor -50
You will need a scroll of depth and you'll likely only get one. Use the scroll from floor -49 and prepare to fight the dragon. (You can always come back with the wand of flight if you're not prepared.)
Use the wand of frost to turn all lava to rock and retrieve the sword fragment.

When you are done,

Talk to the Dwarf on floor -35 . . . but I hope you figured that part out!

When you're on the genie level (Level 17), if you use a scroll of teleport to get past the genie and stuff, and walk around, you can find a bunch of hidden walls. When you find all of them, they spell FALSE. Any clues on what this could mean???

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